We just returned early this morning from Venice, and an 11 day Holy Land cruise with Norwegian. Amazing itinerary: Israel, Crete, Cyprus, Rhodes, Split, Montenegro. Trip of a lifetime. We loved the ship food. I especially loved the Southern biscuits and wings in one of the eateries, plus the buffet always had something for everyone. Our favorite was the dining room food, for lunch and dinner. The entertainment is top notch. The group Acora is West End experienced. I was amazed at their professional performance. My favorite is the ship dancers. They are AWESOME, young, incredibly talented.

There is only one (big) gripe we have. For one of the first times, we splashed out big for the excursions into Jerusalem, Israel, Crete, Cyprus. We usually do things ourselves to save money. Anyway, we were EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED how they rounded us up EARLY to be there. And wait. Our leaving times came and went. This wouldn't have been so bad IF they added these times back on, but of course they didn't. On average we left 1/2 hr. late, sometimes later. One day: 3 hours drive to Jerusalem. 2.5 hours in the city, touring. ONLY 1/2 HR. SHOPPING AND ALONE TIME!!! Not enough! Then 3 hrs back. Returning way before we needed to be. Very disappointing. On the Cyprus cruise, bus 1, the guide, a petite, mature woman who said she had been a guide for years, spoke very rapidly, non stop, and put the accent on the wrong syllables in her heavy accent. Consequently, we couldn't understand half or more of what she said. She also NEVER seemed to draw a breath. Or take a pause, which she sorely needed to do. Talking non stop for over an hour to our destination was overwhelming because we couldn't understand her. P-LEASE GET GUIDES WHO DON'T HAVE HEAVY ACCENTS. I asked another woman on the cruise if she could understand the guide. She diplomatically said, "I don't do good with accents". She was from CA. We are American expats living overseas and do ok with accents. But this tour guide spoke like a kamikaze.